Seven things you need to know from No. 4 Kentucky’s 70-66 loss at Clemson
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Game day: Clemson 70, No. 4 Kentucky 66
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s SEC/ACC Challenge men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Clemson in Clemson, S.C.
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Seven things you need to know from No. 4 Kentucky’s 70-66 loss at Clemson in men’s college basketball’s SEC/ACC Challenge:
1. Kentucky 3-point shooting. UK entered Tuesday night’s game at Clemson in a 3-point shooting drought.
In wins last week over Western Kentucky and Georgia State in Rupp Arena, the Wildcats made only a combined 15 of 55 trey attempts, a chilly 27.3%.
During Kentucky’s first true road game of 2024-25, it was more of the same.
UK finished Tuesday night’s game 7-for-27 from behind the arc. Clemson (see below) often defended UK effectively behind the line, but the Wildcats also missed a number of open looks on treys.
Over the past three games, UK is now 22-for-82 on 3-pointers, an arctic 26.8%.
Simply put, it’s going to be hard for Kentucky to beat good teams if it doesn’t start getting the treys to fall.
2. Clemson lays down the template on how to defend Kentucky. UK entered the game leading NCAA Division I in scoring, averaging 96.7 points. The cutting and perpetual ball movement that are features of the system that Mark Pope brought to Kentucky had often created beautiful basketball as the Cats started 7-0.
But on Tuesday night, Clemson took UK out of much of that.
The Tigers did not give Kentucky anything easy. UK could not get the pace sped up and the Wildcats had only eight fast-break points, a total Clemson matched.
In earlier games, when UK 3-point accuracy was errant, the Cats were able to compensate with baskets in the paint. Against a Clemson front line that went 6-foot-8, 240; 6-10, 216; and 6-11, 245, the Wildcats’ advantage in that category was only 30-26.
Deploying a physical style of defense, Clemson held Kentucky to 38.1% field-goal shooting (24-for-63).
3. A substandard showing for UK’s bench players. As Kentucky won its first seven games, the Wildcats’ depth was often a decisive edge.
But at Clemson, UK got scant production off the bench. Clemson outscored the Cats in bench points 15-7.
With its main substitutes on the floor, Kentucky was dramatically outscored. UK was minus-15 with Koby Brea on the floor, minus-20 with Brandon Garrison on the court and minus-21 when Kerr Kriisa was playing.
4. An unexpected “holdover” from the Calipari era. One characteristic of the John Calipari coaching era at Kentucky was that the youthful rosters that UK typically fielded tended to struggle in their first true road games.
Under Calipari, UK went 6-9 in its initial game each season on an opponent’s home court.
One might reasonably have expected Mark Pope’s veteran roster — stocked with six super-seniors plus a seventh traditional senior — to go into Clemson and handle their business.
Instead, Kentucky shot poorly from the floor, missed seven of 18 foul shots and had more turnovers (12) than assists (11).
5. UK coaches in their first true road games. Kentucky’s loss in Mark Pope’s first true road game made the new UK head man the third of the Wildcats’ eight most recent head coaches to lose his first game on an opponent’s home court.
To review:
▪ Adolph Rupp WON at Vanderbilt, 42-37, on July 21, 1931.
▪ Joe B. Hall WON at Michigan State, 75-66, on Dec. 21, 1972.
▪ Eddie Sutton WON at Chaminade, 89-57, on Nov. 26, 1985.
▪ Rick Pitino LOST at Kansas, 150-95, on Dec. 9, 1989.
▪ Tubby Smith WON at Canisius, 81-54, on Dec. 10, 1997.
▪ Billy Gillispie LOST at Indiana, 70-51, on Dec. 8, 2007.
▪ John Calipari WON at Indiana, 90-73, on Dec. 12, 2009.
▪ Mark Pope LOST at Clemson, 70-66, on Dec. 2, 2024.
6. Cats in conference challenges. With Kentucky’s loss at Clemson, the Wildcats are now 1-1 in the SEC/ACC Challenge.
Last year, in the inaugural season of the head-to-head hoops competition between the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference, UK vanquished Miami 95-73 in Rupp Arena.
Overall, Kentucky is now 9-6 in the 21st century phenomenon of conference challenges.
UK went 3-1 in the SEC/Big East Invitational, which ran from 2007-08 through 2012-13.
The Wildcats were 5-4 in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, which went from 2013-14 through 2022-23.
7. Tracking the 2024-25 SEC/ACC Challenge. Last season, in the inaugural men’s basketball SEC/ACC Challenge, the two leagues fought to a 7-7 draw.
This year, with the SEC having eight teams ranked in this week’s men’s AP Top 25 compared to the ACC’s three, the Southeastern Conference entered the 2024-25 SEC/ACC Challenge expected to prevail, even dominate.
On night one of the two-day event, the SEC dominated.
The SEC swept the early games. Arkansas rallied to win 76-73 at Miami; host Georgia blasted Notre Dame 69-48; South Carolina went on the road and routed Boston College 73-51; Missouri came from 16 down at halftime to beat visiting California 98-93; and No. 3 Tennessee nuked Syracuse 96-70.
In the late games, No. 21 Oklahoma whipped visiting Georgia Tech 76-61; No. 22 Texas A&M defeated visiting Wake Forest 57-44; No. 23 Mississippi won big at Louisville 86-63; host LSU got past Florida State 85-75 — and No. 4 Kentucky, long the flagship program of SEC men’s basketball, was the only Southeastern Conference team to lose.
Up 9-1, the SEC has already clinched the overall win in the Challenge, but there are some good games remaining in the event on Wednesday night.
The early contests will tip off at 7:15 p.m. (EST) and feature No. 10 Alabama at No. 20 North Carolina (telecast on ESPN) and Virginia at No. 13 Florida (ESPN2).
The late games will tip at 9:15 and have No. 2 Auburn at No. 9 Duke (ESPN), No. 18 Pittsburgh at Mississippi State (SEC Network), Texas at North Carolina State (ESPN2) and Vanderbilt at Virginia Tech (ACC Network).
This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 12:11 AM.
